


The Last Rose of Summer

by unbeldi



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-06
Updated: 2016-05-06
Packaged: 2018-06-06 20:03:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6768130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unbeldi/pseuds/unbeldi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"As the years passed, he fell into a deep despair and lost all hope.<br/>For who could ever learn to love a beast?"</p>
<p>(A Makoto/Nephrite retelling of Beauty and the Beast.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Last Rose of Summer

“Mako,” Serenity asked, squinting at the patches of dead grass beneath her, “is it going to rain again soon?”

It was a common question these days, one that grew steadily more urgent as time wore on, as the clouds of dust and filth began to thicken. As their unusually dry spring faded into the first days of an unusually dry, unusually hot summer. Farmers whispered it worriedly over their drinks, in between tales of withered crops and loose, cracked topsoil. Women disguised it as small talk at the wells, each of them holding their breath to see if today would be the day the bucket came up empty.

Everyone looked to the sky, hanging musty and grey above them on the best of days, hoping that it would open at long last, that their question might finally be answered.

Makoto alone knew that they’d be waiting for a while yet.

The brunette fidgeted next to her friend, scratching at the handkerchief that kept stray tangles of hair -- and, more recently, salty beads of sweat -- from her face. It was easy enough to ignore the question when she overheard it on her daily errands. No one ever spoke to her at the market -- she half-suspected that no one acknowledged her existence there. Poor orphan girl, always dressed in tatters, nothing more than a maid to the town’s richest family. She couldn’t even say she blamed them for ignoring her.

It certainly made her life easier, not having to tell those desperate people that rain wasn’t coming. They didn’t know the way the wind whispered to her, or the way she could feel an oncoming storm in the thrum of her heart. They didn’t know that she used to go out and dance before a rainfall, pretending that she was the one who called it there, showing her oldest friend how the thunder sometimes obeyed her when she clapped her hands or stomped her feet.

Only Serenity knew, and while she’d been kind enough not to ask it before today, Makoto had seen the question burning in her eyes for weeks now. With the dusty air settling in her lungs, and the oppressive heat worsening her fatigue, it was only a matter of time before her self-restraint gave way.

Makoto took a deep breath and fixed her face in the brightest expression she could manage.

“I think it will,” she said, forcing the lie over her too-honest tongue. “It’s been almost three months now. I bet the sky’s been waiting to give us a huge, wonderful storm to make up for that poor excuse for a spring.”

Serenity’s eyes widened, looking up from the ground she’d been staring at so intently.

“Really?” she asked. “You don’t have to lie if it’s not true, or anything. I was just curious.”

‘Just curious.’ As though she hadn’t been wasting away slowly in her bedroom, barely able to breathe without coughing, sweating and overheating under so much as a cotton bedsheet. And still, her concern was for Makoto’s feelings. It was enough to strain her false smile at its edges.

“No, no, it’s true. And I’m sure it’ll cool down too, after the rain. We might even get to shut the windows at night again,” she said. “Then I won’t have to go swat a fly for your mother every twenty minutes. It’ll be great.”

The words rang hollow to her, filled with so much surety that they spilled back over into doubt, denial clouded with enthusiasm. But all the same, Serenity’s blue eyes sparkled. There was not a more trusting person in the world -- anyone else would need only glance at her to know the truth.

“I’m so glad. We’ll have to have a picnic again, when it isn’t so dusty.”

That had been their intent today, and their reason for sitting on the side of a hill just beyond the town’s limits, overlooking the barren stretches of land that should have been golden now with grain. Serenity, stronger than she’d been for a while after a series of doctor’s visits, complained that she’d not been out of bed in weeks, that her room had started to smell like medicine, and that she’d go absolutely crazy if they didn’t  _ right this second  _ do something fun, preferably as far from her dreary home as possible. 

Makoto had done her best to oblige -- there was some leftover raisin bread she’d been saving for herself, and if she ran to market, she could throw together one of the stews Serenity liked best. But when she pulled the small loaf out from its hiding place in her bedroom, she’d found the thing half-eaten by rats, and though she’d covered the stew and wrapped it in an old dress of hers to keep out the dust as they walked, by the time she poured the first bowl it was so thick with dirt that neither of them could stomach it. So here they were, on a picnic without food, under a grey sky that would not rain. Not exactly the day she’d hoped to give her best friend while she still felt well.

“I really am sorry about the stew --”

“Shhh, Mako. Stop it,” Serenity said, scrunching her nose in playful annoyance. “It’s not your fault the weather’s being stupid. If you don’t stop apologizing, I’ll have to punish you.”

“Oh  _ really _ ?” Makoto couldn’t help but grin. “And how do you plan to do that, little bunny?”

The blonde huffed at her childhood nickname.

“Like this!”

Serenity pounced, her voice breaking into a squeal before she finished speaking, tickling fingers aimed for Makoto’s unprotected sides. She jerked backward, laughing, defenseless against the onslaught.

Truly a merciless punishment for her apologies.

“Hey -- hey now, stop that!” Makoto gasped out between fits of giggles, swatting in vain at the tickles coming her way, knocked over onto her back by Serenity’s weight. A worry needled at the back of her mind, much as she was loath to interrupt her friend’s rare moment of happiness. “You’re going to --”

A ragged cough shook the petite body on top of her, and soon Serenity was not laughing anymore.

“I’m -- I’m okay,” she insisted, but a cough cut her off before she could finish, and then another, before she had to cover her mouth and turn away to contain the spasms. Makoto winced, wrapping her arms around the smaller girl until the horrifying noises stopped. She shouldn’t have let her do that -- the doctors had said to avoid even the smallest physical exertion, she should have cut it off immediately --

As though sensing her thoughts, Serenity put one hand on top of hers, knotted together in worry over her ribcage.

“I’m  _ okay _ , Mako,” she said again. “It’s dusty out, that’s all.”

The tiny shoulders that leaned up against her trembled, a shiver of effort just from sitting up, and Makoto knew she wasn’t the only one to lie today. She sat in silence with her friend for a few moments longer, listening to how the air rattled and wheezed in her lungs.

Serenity had been sick for as long as they’d known each other, but never like this. Her body was turning on her, and for all her efforts, there was not a thing Makoto could do to fix it.

“Let’s get you back home,” she whispered, trying to keep her voice level and unworried as she could. “Your mother will get mad --”

Serenity stiffened, throwing out her free hand to point at a hulking silhouette in the distance, surprising Makoto into silence.

“Look,” she said. “There’s a light in the castle again.”


End file.
